Tech Biz Replay: Apple Gets A DOWNGRADE, Facebook Can’t Catch a BREAK

Shares of Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (NYSE:YGE) move up on Tuesday on word that its multicrystalline PV modules successfully passed the Potential Induced Degradation test conducted by Intertek Group. Yingli modules ranked number one in tests that were designed to assess power output under severe conditions of high voltage, high temperature and high humidity.

The sky must be falling. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has gotten a rare downgrade to Hold at Oracle Research. It is presumed that the recent share run-up might be the culprit here. The last such downgrade that Apple had to endure was in April by Walter Piecyk at BTIG.

No stranger to downgrades, bad luck nor anything else, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) shares are trading down again, below $20 on word that news director and seed investor Peter Thiel has cashed out his position might have had something to do with this selling spree. However, VC Fred Wilson contends that investors are obliged to return capital to clients as soon as possible, but Dan Primack notes that most of Thiel’s sales involved his personal investment in Facebook.

New Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) Chief Executive Marissa Mayer’s clear orientation on products and technical talent is not going over at all well with certain sections of the company. One advertising sales employee points out that “It’s a bigger company than just engineers, and we pay the bills”. Kara Swisher says that “many in the sales, finance and media side of Yahoo” are airing similar gripes about Mayer, who came from the engineer-dominated Google, exemplifying the business school axiom that every company has its own culture. This discord is intensifying as several top sales executives, some of whom remain loyal to the departed Ross Levinsohn, have recently exited.